In the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali, Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and decided to bowl first. In place of Faf Du Plessis, who is injured, Virat Kohli is the team’s captain. Liam Livingstone returned to the side after completely recovering from his injury. Shikhar Dhawan is still unavailable to play with Sam Curran captaining the Punjab Kings.
Why is Dhawan not playing today?
Shikhar Dhawan is not playing today’s match due to a niggle. Sam Curran told at the toss that the skipper picked up an injury in the last game which has ruled him out of today’s game. In his place, Atharva Taide will open with Matthew Short in this game.
The Punjab Kings will hope that Dhawan is fit and rearing to go in the next matches.
What did the captains say at the toss?
Virat Kohli – Faf potentially can’t be fielding today, so he’ll be playing as a impact player, switching with Vyshak. We got to do what we wanted, we would have batted first, the pitch could get slow, some scruff marks will help the bowlers going deep into the game. Taking one game at a time, focussing on our own game, make the most of crunch situations, we haven’t done that so far in the tournament. No other changes for us.
Sam Curran – We will bowl first, did well in the last game and we’ll take some confidence, conditions will not change a lot. Shikhar is getting closer, but he’ll miss out today. He’s a quality player, but the younger lot will have to shape up, Livingstone is back and we have Ellis back in place of KG.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI)
Virat Kohli(c), Faf du Plessis, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Suyash Prabhudessai, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj
Punjab Kings (Playing XI)
Atharva Taide, Matthew Short, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
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